105,313Records 71,083Employers 85,290Hospitalizations 27,770Amputations 2015-01-01 2025-10-31
Safety Incidents OSHA Severe Injury Reports · 2015–2025

OSHA Accident Investigation · Summary #605543

SHORING,UNSTABLE SOIL,SLOPING,BURIED,WORK RULES,CAVE-IN,CONSTRUCTION,TRENCH

Event
SHORING,UNSTABLE SOIL,SLOPING,BURIED,WORK RULES,CAVE-IN,CONSTRUCTION,TRENCH
Linked inspection
No inspection record linked to this accident's victims.
Summary number
605543
Report ID
418100

Event description

Employee killed in trench cave-in

Investigation abstract

At 2:45 p.m. on May 8, 1987, Employee #1 was bolting a flange on a 6 in. water p ipe in a 13 ft deep by 3-106 feet wide unsupported trench with vertical walls. T he wall collapsed onto Employee #1, covering him with an estimated 3 to 7 tons o f dirt and killing him. Rescue personnel took the more than 45 minutes to remove him.

Victims (3)

  1. #1 Fatality Age 47 M

    Nature of injury
    2
    Part of body
    4
    Event type
    2
    Source
    12
    Occupation code
    999
    Human factor
    20
    Environmental factor
    6
    Task assigned
    1
  2. #981 Degree 0 Age 0

    Nature of injury
    0
    Part of body
    0
    Event type
    0
    Source
    0
    Occupation code
    0
    Human factor
    0
    Environmental factor
    0
    Task assigned
    0
  3. #982 Degree 0 Age 0

    Nature of injury
    0
    Part of body
    0
    Event type
    0
    Source
    0
    Occupation code
    0
    Human factor
    0
    Environmental factor
    0
    Task assigned
    0

Codes shown verbatim from OSHA's accident-investigation database. A human-readable decoder is coming in a future release once the accident_lookup2 dictionary is loaded.